:Newtown first responders carry heavy burdens

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) -- While the people of Newtown do their best to cope with loss and preserve the memories of their loved ones, another class of residents is also finding it difficult to move on: the emergency responders who saw firsthand the terrible aftermath of last week's school shooting.

Firefighter Peter Barresi was driving through Newtown on Friday when police cars with lights flashing and sirens blaring raced toward his oldest son's elementary school. After he was sent to Sandy Hook school himself, he saw things that will stay with him forever.

With anguished parents searching for their children, he prepared to receive the wounded, but a paramedic came back empty-handed, underscoring the totality of the massacre. Barresi, whose own son escaped unharmed, later discovered that among the 26 dead were children who played baseball with his son and had come to his house for birthday parties.

"For some of us, it's fairly difficult," said Barresi, of the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Co. "Fortunately most of us did not go in."

1. We get to see pictures of the beautiful faces of those 20 children...

...if, like the first responders, Americans had to look at the sight of those 20 destroyed faces, pooled in blood, tightened gun laws would be guaranteed and NRA member relatives would never again be invited to Christmas dinners.
Damn all idolatrous defenders of guns!

2. kick

3. Today I was thinking about...

the other kids in the school. Even if they didn't see the incident they knew classmates and teachers who are now gone. Can you imagine a little 6 YO whose friend and playmate is gone? So heartbreaking on so many levels.

5. Good story, but not "breaking."

"Breaking" news generally means something that's so important that a broadcaster is going to interrupt what it's doing to make sure you know about it. We're trained to think "something new and urgent" when we see "breaking" online. Just FYI.